O’Kane: Harps primed for Clann Éireann “battle”

By Shaun Casey

ARMAGH Harps host Clann Éireann on Friday evening in a repeat of last season’s Senior Championship quarter-final, which the Lurgan side won by three before going on to collect the Gerry Fagan Cup.

On a night when very little separated the sides, it was a late goal from Ruairi McDonald that was ultimately the difference in the end. Heading into next week’s league clash against the reigning champions, Tom O’Kane says his side are still hurting.

O’Kane nailed a personal haul of 1-5 last weekend against Silverbridge as the Harps picked up their second victory of the campaign. Clann Éireann, on the other hand, suffered a nine-point loss at the hands of Killeavy.

“They’re always a big battle and they’re coming to us up in Abbey Park,” said O’Kane. “They beat us last year in the championship by three points and we’re still very hurt from that, personally and collectively.”

The Harps, managed by former Tyrone star Pascal Canavan, have two wins from their first three outings and have bounced back brilliantly from their first round defeat to last year’s beaten SFC finalists Clan na Gael.

Canavan’s side have defeated both Killeavy and Silverbridge in recent weeks, both away from home, and have rattled off five goals in doing so. Seeing off Silverbridge was a big stepping stone last weekend.

“Every time we come up here, it’s never an easy game,” O’Kane added after the seven-point win. “We haven’t won up here in maybe two or three years so it’s always a big battle coming to Silverbridge and especially with the conditions.

“It was tough going but the boys showed good bottle in the second half so we’re happy to have got the win. It’s all about work rate and working up that hill in the second half, getting the turnovers.

“We have some big men out the field like Jayson Hughes and Tadgh Grimley who put in a serious amount of work and we got the rewards eventually, the boys up front have the easy part, we just kick it over.”

On his goal, O’Kane continued: “Luke McKeever did all the work, he came straight through the middle and I slipped off.

“He fired it across to me so I did the easy part, lucky enough it went in because I didn’t even connect with it properly.

“Luke had a super game,” O’Kane added.